AMERICA’S FIRST BISHOP

Evening Star, Issue 23130, 2 December 1938, Page 1

AMERICA’S FIRST BISHOP

MEMORIAL m ABERDEEN An event of historic significance took place at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen, recently, when the United States Ambassador inaugurated a memorial to Samuel Seabury, the first American bishop. In the eighteenth century, when Seabury was born in Connecticut, America ■ was, .for. • ecclesiastical ‘ purposes, -ainddered to be. pait of the London diocese, although ho Bishop of London had ever set foot in the country. The American Revolution made a bad situation worse, and, realising that they must have a bishop of their own if they were to preserve their church life, the clergy of Connecticut elected one of their number, Seabury, to bo bishop. Seabury came to England and petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury to consecrate him. But in that heyday of Erastianisrii, the archbishop felt unable to consecrate one who was not nominated by the Crown, and who was not going to take the Oath-of Allegiance. After more than a year spent in fruitless efforts to obtain consecration in England, Seabury went to Scotland (where he was no stranger since he had read medicine at Edinburgh), and sought the help of the bishop of the disestablished Episcopalian Church, Here his request was heard with sympathy, and on November 14,. 1784, he was consecrated in Aberdeen by the Primus and two other bishops. In America it has long been felt that Seabury’s memory should be perpetuated at Aberdeen on a truly noble scale which should be worthy of the debt of gratitude which the American church owes to the Episcopalian church. It was originally intended to build a new cathedral t to cost £200,000, and plans were drawn, up by Mr Ninian Comper. However, the project was abandoned at the time of the American slump of 1929, and a more modest scheme has since been devised to include the extension and decoration of the present building, the nave of which was built in 1816. The part of the memorial which th» American Ambassador inaugurated consists of the enlargement of the cathedral, and for this Mr Comper is responsible. The work includes, the building of a new sanctuary in which will be set a high altar with a ciborium of burnished gold.